Speed Learning
by bluegalx
Summary: Cute fic about Pietro when he was very young, on his first day of school. PLEASE r&r!


Speed Learning  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men. If you're looking for some witty remark or joke, it's too late at night.  
  
I beseech you people to review.  
  
Okay, according to most fan fiction writers, Pietro and Wanda were older than six when Wanda was abandoned, but to me they look really young, so just humor me, okay? **************************************************************************** ****  
  
"It'll be fine Pietro, nothing bad will happen to you!" the man reassured.  
"But Daddy-"  
"Don't worry! I'll pick you up as soon as school is over! Besides, you were fine in kindergarten, weren't you?"  
"Yeah, but then I was only there for the morning!" he whined "And I don't know anybody here!"  
"You'll make friends" the older man said with a forced smile to hide his inner annoyance.  
"Okay" the little boy said, and his head drooped "I wish Wanda were here! She's supposed to go to school with me!" Eric ground his teeth in anger, but did not let his temper show.  
"Wanda's happy where she is, you know that" he lied. Pietro's face brightened a little. He missed Wanda, but she had to be happy where she was or his father would definitely bring her back.  
"Now, let's go inside and meet your teacher." Nervously, Pietro approached the big brick building, squeezing his father's hand. He had been inside once before when he enrolled, and had taken a small tour of the school. But this was different, this time Eric would be leaving him there.  
Inside the halls were decorated with colorful signs saying "Welcome Back!" and "School is Cool." Pietro, who could not yet read, looked at them in awe.  
"What does that say Daddy?" he asked and pointed to a banner.  
"It says 'Learning is Fun'" and then added "in school you learn how to read."  
Finally, they stopped in front of a friendly wooden door with a small glass window in the middle. The door was covered in red paper apples, each with a name on it. Above the window was a plaque with the words "Mrs. Wilson"  
Eric knocked on the door and then opened it.  
"Oh hello!" a friendly woman greeted. She looked about in her mid 40s and had curly brown hair. She was wearing a simple blue dress with red and green flowers on it.  
"Pietro Maximoff" Eric said, telling the teacher which student was there.  
"Oh yes, of course!" she said "he's the last one to come"  
"Come in Pietro" the boy's father said, and Pietro poked his head in the doorway. Mrs. Wilson noticed something strange about him, but she could not quite pinpoint it at first. But then she realized it was his hair. Hair could easily be dyed any variety of colors, and the teacher had seen her shared of people with white hair- but never on first graders. Had his parents really let him dye his whole head white?  
"Well" she said overcoming her surprise "Come on in Pietro!" He did not.  
"Go on" Eric said "You'll be fine! Now I've got to go" he said and patted the boy before walking away. Pietro was suddenly overcome with fear. His father was gone and he was surrounded by strangers. Seeing no other options, he cautiously approached Mrs. Wilson. She smiled and took his hand.  
"Don't be shy" she encouraged, and led him into the classroom. It was a bright room with posters of the alphabet, numbers and colors. In one corner were toys: blocks, a dollhouse, dress-up clothes. In the back of the room was a chalkboard, and below it was large rug. One either side of the rug were small shelves of children's books. On the wall across from the door was a desk where the Mrs. Wilson had been sitting. And in the middle of the room were four round tables holding the other students.  
"Look!" a blonde girl wearing a purple bow shouted "his hair is white!" All the students stared.  
"Now class" Mrs. Wilson scolded "that isn't nice at all!" Although she found his hair color a little unnerving. She led Pietro to a table where five boys already sat. He sat down in the empty seat. The other boys were staring at him.  
"His hair is weird!" a boy with black hair whispered, or meant to whisper, although the whole table could hear it plainly. The other boys snickered and Pietro hung his head.  
"Good morning class!" Mrs. Wilson announced cheerily "I'm Mrs. Wilson and I'm going to be your teacher for the rest of the year! We're going to have lots of fun..." and the speech went on like that for a few minutes. Then it was time for coloring. Mrs. Wilson handed out paper to all the students and gave a box of crayons to each table, saying that since there was not enough, they would have to share.  
The black-haired boy reached the box first and removed a yellow. Immediately the other boys started to ask him for crayons.  
"I want a blue!" one boy called.  
"I want the green!"  
"Give me the orange!" With an air of superiority, the boy handed out the crayons.  
"Can I have the red?" Pietro asked, already knowing what he wanted to draw.  
"I want the red too!" another boy with brown hair and glasses said.  
"I called it first!" Pietro argued.  
"No, Andy did" the black haired boy retorted, referring to the other.  
"No he didn't!"  
"He asked me before Mrs. Wilson handed them out" and to signal the end of the dispute, he handed Andy the red crayon.  
"Can I have the red when you're done?" Pietro asked Andy.  
"Uh-huh" However, Pietro still did not have a crayon, and he did not want to confront the black-haired boy again. So without saying anything, he reached over and grabbed a black out of the box and began to draw.  
  
After about forty-five minutes, drawing time was over. Mrs. Wilson collected the crayons and then announced that everyone was going to share what they had drawn.  
"Jennifer, would you like to share with us first?"  
"Uh-huh!" a tall girl with red hair exclaimed.  
"Okay, come up here" Mrs. Wilson called her to the front of the room. Jennifer held up her crude drawing of a tree with a sun and a boy and girl.  
"This is the big tree in my backyard" she explained "that's me" she pointed to the girl "and that's my brother Will!"  
"Do you and Will play by the tree a lot?" the teacher asked. Jen nodded.  
"Does anyone have any questions for Jennifer?" Mrs. Wilson asked the class. One boy raised his hand.  
"Yes?"  
"Does your tree have a swing on it?" he asked.  
"No" was the reply.  
"Any more questions?" Mrs. Wilson asked. There were none, and Jennifer sat down. This was how it went until finally, it was Pietro's turn. Cautiously he walked to the front of the room holding his picture. He had drawn to children, a boy and a girl who had black hair and a red dress on. They were holding hands, and underneath them was grass.  
"This is me and my sister, Wanda" he said "she's my twin!" Some of the students awed at the fact that Pietro had a twin, but most did not know what that meant.  
"A twin" Mrs. Wilson explained "Is a brother or a sister who is born exactly the same time you are!" Now the whole class was amazed.  
"I have a question!" a girl shouted.  
"Please raise your hand next time" Mrs. Wilson said.  
"'Kay" she said and looked at Pietro "does your twin go to school?"  
"Wanda was gonna go to school, but she had to go to this place, so she couldn't" Pietro told with a little sadness.  
"What place?" the girl asked.  
"I dunno" he said. Mrs. Wilson looked at the boy curiously. A twin sister? What did he mean she had to go to a "place"?  
"Well, are there any more questions?" None.  
"Okay, thank-you Pietro" she said and he returned to his seat.  
  
During the rest of the morning, the class studied colors, numbers and read a story. Pietro learned that the black-haired boy's name was Jake, and that he was the best at everything "because".  
"Because why?" a boy at their table asked as they were eating lunch.  
"Because I am" Jake stated.  
After lunch came the alphabet and then Mrs. Wilson announced that it was time for gym. She asked the students to form two lines in the back of her, one for the boys and one for the girls. Then, Mrs. Wilson led them out of the room and down the hallway, and another hallway and then a flight of stairs.  
"My older brother says that gym is lots of fun!" a boy named Mike whispered to Pietro.  
"What do you do?" he asked.  
"You get to play sports! Like baseball and football and basketball and stuff!"  
"That's it?"  
"No, you do other stuff to, like run and-"  
"Run! I love running!" Pietro exclaimed happily.  
Mrs. Wilson opened up one of a pair of double doors and led the class into a very large room. Along the walls were bleachers. Hanging on the walls were at least six different baskets, accompanied by a scoreboard and multiple green and blue banners that read "1st Place Women's Volleyball 1974" or "1980 State Champions" There were also at least five different plaques showing the high scores of past athletes.  
Pietro had never seen a room this big before. He was only allowed in certain rooms within his father's castle, and he did not dare peek where he could not go, lest he be caught. And probably one of the things Pietro feared most was making his father angry.  
Waiting for the class was a man wearing shorts and a sweatshirt.  
"Hey! How are you guys doing?" he asked the class as they entered.  
"Good!" a few of the bolder students answered. Mrs. Wilson smiled  
"I'll take you back after gym" she said and left.  
"Okay, I want everyone to sit down on the blue line" the man said. On the shiny brown floor there was a strip of blue. The students obeyed. Pietro found himself sitting a little bit away from the rest of the group, when Mike sat down next to him.  
"I'm Mr. Silverten" the man said "and I'm your gym teacher. In gym we're going to learn about all different sports! Can anyone name some sports they know?" Virtually all of the student's hands shot up at once, and each was eager to give an answer. Mr. Silverten called on a girl with millions of freckles first.  
"Baseball!" she answered eagerly.  
"Good job!" Mr. Silverten congratulated her, and then called on a boy.  
"Basketball!"  
"Yep, that too"  
"Hockey!"  
"Football!" Jake shouted.  
"Right" the teacher said, not bothering to reprimand him for calling out. Pietro, a little jealous of Jake, called out:  
"Running!"  
"That's right, running is a sport too-" and then Mr. Silverten noticed the boys hair. For a second he found himself staring at it, wondering how that came to be, but he quickly snapped himself out of it.  
"Now, in gym class..." for the next few minutes, Mr. Silverten droned about the rules and what they would do in gym, and so on. Pietro zoned out, as did many of the other kids.  
"Okay!" the teacher said, his voice sounding as if he was starting something new, grabbing the children's attention "since it's the first day of school, you can have the rest of the time free!" The class cheered, and all got up to begin doing whatever they wanted, even if they did not know what that was yet. Mr. Silverten handed out foam balls for them.  
"Isn't gym fun?" Mike asked.  
"Uh-huh" Pietro answered "I wanna run"  
"I'll race you!" Mike challenged.  
"I'd win!"  
"Oh yeah?"  
"I'll race both of you!" the boys turned to see Jake "And I bet I'll win!"  
"You couldn't beat me Jake" Pietro said flatly.  
"Oh really?"  
"Yeah. I can beat anybody at running!"  
"Anybody but me!" Jake sneered "I'm the fastest on my street!"  
"I'm the fastest in the world!"  
"Who told you that? You're mommy?" Pietro's face darkened. He had only a faint memory of his adoptive mother, the woman he had gotten the name "Maximoff" from. As for his real mother, in Pietro's mind she had never existed.  
"No" he replied "I'll race you from here to the other side!"  
"Okay, we'll start at this wall, first one to the other side wins. Which will be me" Jake huffed. Glaring, the two boys walked to their starting point. Mike stood to the side and called:  
"On your mark! Get set! Go!"  
What felt like a wind blew past and a millisecond later everyone could see Pietro, on the other side of the gymnasium. The children awed, and were eager to greet Pietro as he zipped back over to them.  
"H-how'd you do that?" Mike questioned. The boy shrugged.  
"I dunno, I always could" although Pietro did know how, but he remembered what his father had told him: don't tell anyone that you're a mutant.  
Jake, who had been speechless, narrowed his eyes:  
"That was cheating!" he accused, but everyone ignored him. They were all crowded around Pietro, their new hero. Mr. Silverten, noticing the commotion, approached the children and asked what was going on.  
"Pietro can run super fast!" blurted Mike. The teacher chuckled to himself. The boy was just probably faster than most of the kids, and being young, they exaggerated.  
"Can I see Pietro?" Mr. Silverten asked. Pietro nodded and took off like a bullet- literally. Mr. Silverten jumped back in surprise. Pietro Maximoff was not normal, that was for sure.  
"How the he-" the teacher caught himself "Th-that was very good" he stammered. Pietro smiled awkwardly, puzzled by Mr. Silverten's strange behavior.  
"Are you okay?" he asked.  
"I'm fine" he swallowed hard "keep playing kids." He walked over to the bleachers where his binder was. He noticed Mrs. Wilson standing in the entrance.  
"Oh, Nancy!" he greeted her "Before you take the kids up, who are Pietro Maximoff's parents?" Mrs. Wilson searched her memory.  
"Oh yes" she finally said "He only has a father, Eric Lensherr. Strange that they have different last names"  
"He's a very strange boy"  
"His hair scarring you?" she teased.  
"No... something else. I'll tell you later." Before she could ask anything else, he called for the class to stop playing.  
  
***  
  
Pietro waited eagerly on the blacktop, searching for his father from his spot next to Mrs. Wilson. Finally, the man appeared, and after chatting with the teacher a little bit, left with his son. As they were leaving, Mr. Silverten tapped Eric on the shoulder.  
"Excuse me, Mr. Lensherr?" he asked "I'd like to speak to you about you're son for a moment." The older man looked at him with hidden contempt.  
"I'm sorry, but I don't have a moment right now, perhaps I can talk with you tomorrow mister..."  
"Silverten"  
"Mr. Silverten. Good day" and he hurried Pietro and himself off of the school yard.  
"Who is he?" Eric asked.  
"My gym teacher.  
"What did you do?" He questioned sternly.  
"I dunno" Pietro answered meekly.  
"What did you do in gym?"  
"Well, Mr. Silverten told us the rules- and then we had free time"  
"And...?" Eric grew impatient.  
"And, a mean kid named Jake wanted to race me, so I did and I beat him!"  
"Did Mr. Silverten see you?"  
"No, but later he asked me to show him how fast I can run!"  
"Listen to me" Eric scolded firmly "you cannot use your powers in public; the time has not come yet!" the boy nodded.  
"Remember Pietro, we are superior to them"  
"Yep!" he answered "I know!" and the two climbed into a black car and drove away. 


End file.
